Thursday, February 06, 2014

Courts - Will SCOTUS take up the Q of whether gun rights exist outside the home?

The next chance for the Supreme Court to take up the most important unanswered issue about the Second Amendment — whether gun rights exist outside the home — will come later this month, according to scheduling shown Wednesday on the Court’s electronic docket.

The Justices at their private Conference on February 21 will be examining two cases filed by the National Rifle Association, raising basic questions about the power of Congress and state and local governments to pass gun control laws. In different ways, each of those petitions seeks to draw the Court’s attention to the lingering issue of gun rights in public places. The cases are NRA v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (13-137) and NRA v. McCraw (13-390).

So far, the Court has answered two fundamental questions about the Second Amendment: in 2008, in District of Columbia v. Heller, it ruled that the amendment protects a personal right to have a gun, at least for self-defense inside one’s home, and in 2010, in McDonald v. City of Chicago, it ruled that the amendment applies so as to restrict gun control laws at the state and local levels, as well as at the federal level.

Since then, the Court has repeatedly turned down new cases seeking to broaden the personal right to have a gun, with most of those dealing with pleas to extend the right to public settings. The Court, as usual, has given no explanation for remaining on the sidelines in those cases.